Vatican City, Jul 19, 2005 / 12:00 am (CNA).- In a recent document, the Vatican has condemned the production and use of vaccines derived from aborted fetal cell lines.

The Pontifical Academy for Life’s eight-page document was published in Medicina e Morale by the Center for Bioethics of Catholic University in Rome. It is titled “Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Fetuses.”

Vatican officials have put the full burden of guilt on the pharmaceutical industry, comparing their moral complicity to that of the abortionists themselves. They are also calling for "rigorous legal control of the pharmaceutical industry producers."

The Vatican also supports parents who refuse to use the vaccines. “As regards the diseases against which there are no alternative vaccines which are available and ethically acceptable, it is right to abstain from using these vaccines if it can be done without causing children, and indirectly the population as a whole, to undergo significant risks to their health,” the statement reads.

The document states that doctors and families "should use conscientious objection and oppose by all means – in writing, through various associations, mass media, etc, - the vaccines which do not yet have morally acceptable alternatives, creating pressure so that alternative vaccines are prepared, which are not connected with the abortion of a human fetus.”

Children of God for Life executive director Debi Vinnedge said she is pleased with the document. Her organization had sent an appeal on the matter to the Vatican a few years ago.

"There is a serious problem when parents are denied the right to abstain from these vaccines in accord with State law, simply because there was nothing from the Vatican directly addressing it,” she said.

Vinnedge says the Vatican document should spur action on their Fair Labeling and Informed Consent Act, introduced to members of Congress earlier this year. The legislation requires that pharmaceutical companies give full disclosure whenever aborted fetal or embryonic cell lines are used in their products.

Dr. Steven White, president of the Catholic Medical Association, agreed that the pharmaceutical industry should provide accurate information on the origin of all vaccines so that consumers “are able to make informed decisions in accord with our moral conscience.”